The funny part is the government of China claims to OWN all the Chinese people in the world as well. Wonder what the rental costs on workers compared to PR animals is ?I KNOW the benefits to the Pandas are better than the workers retirement package.

Although a clause to borrow the pandas may state that cloning is not an option.Anyone work at a zoo that has borrowed pandas? Why aren't we cloning them?

You need a panda to host the cloned embryos.

Actually you could implant the clone into a less endangered ursine.

Closest relative, oddly, is the Andean spectacled bear which is classified as "vulnerable". I don't get why there isn't a cloning program (unless there is one and I'm just not aware of it). It would be a shame for these magnificent animals to become extinct.

Well, they've got a point...we shouldn't let any species go extinct until we learn how to bring it back again, if necessary. Could have useful proteins, etc, that we haven't discovered yet, or figured out how to synthesize.

Case in point: the horseshoe crab was always considered pretty useless...until they discovered limulin.Now the local fishery is a profitable, productive industry, employing people and making a useful product.

Lady Indica:I knew it because of the panda exhibit in California, when they first came to the zoo it was part of the story about them. And China can enforce it by not allowing any of their pandas out unless that policy is agreed to. They take panda conservation seriously so I haven't seen any org really biatch about it. They also approve all the names, which is why all pandas have Chinese names.

"They take panda conservation seriously."

Translation: They care fark-all about pandas but know where their bread is buttered.